Are we evolving as quickly as our clients?
- veterinaryvoicesuk
- 6 hours ago
- 15 min read
Written by Robyn Lowe
BSc Hons, Dip AVN (Surgery, Medicine, Anaesthesia) DipHE CVN, RVN
Director: Veterinary Voices UK
As part of our SPVS Congress Special with Paul Horwood - Podcast (due to be published on Sunday the 22nd February) and SPVS Congress Talk (Friday 27th February)
We are in the era now of veterinary professionals who have started out their veterinary journey because of the deep love of James Herriot and the idealistic views of his adventures, anecdotes, and tragedies of village life. Each unique pet belonged to an even more unique owner, such as Mrs. Pumphrey the owner of a Pekingese; portrayed as an eccentric character who treats her dog like royalty. The books contain numerous characters, connections and strong personalities throughout the series and although the stories are about being a veterinary surgeon and life as a vet, and of course the animals, a common and strong theme is the people Herriot is privileged enough to work with in his day to day life.
James Herriot's first book, "If Only They Could Talk," was published in 1970, and now some 55 years later we are in a very different veterinary landscape to even a decade ago. Research indicates that veterinary professionals' perceptions of their clients’ needs and expectations regarding animal health care may not always align with what clients actually experience, want or expect when seeking care for their animals.
Could closing this mismatch help improve our relationship between owners and clients?
Themes in client needs, expectations and behaviour
When asked on Veterinary Voices UK how veterinary professionals have found clients needs, expectations and behaviour has changed over the years, 7 themes emerged:
Here are 7 key themes that emerge from those veterinary reflections:
1. Changing Client Expectations
Clients increasingly expect gold-standard, hospital-level care — often influenced by social media, TV shows, and online content. Many now view referral-level procedures as the norm, even when financially or clinically unrealistic. Expectations around immediacy, outcomes, and “quick fixes” have risen dramatically.
2. Decline in Trust and Rise of “Dr Google”
Where once clients trusted their vet’s word, the internet has created a generation of self-researchers. “Your own research” culture and misinformation have eroded professional trust, sometimes leading to conflict and frustration within consultations.
3. Financial Pressure and Treatment Gaps
A widening gap exists between what is clinically possible and what clients can afford. Advanced treatments create ethical and emotional strain when owners can’t fund care — leading to guilt, dissatisfaction, and strain on veterinary teams.
4. Shifting Practice Models and De-skilling
The move away from in-house out-of-hours and complex procedures has reduced opportunities for first opinion vets to maintain advanced clinical skills. Increased referrals can both raise standards and limit hands-on experience, impacting team confidence and continuity of care.
5. Breakdown in Vet–Client Communication
Vets report more difficulty ensuring understanding and compliance. This erodes teamwork and outcomes. Many highlight that effective communication and emotional intelligence are now more crucial — and time-consuming — than ever.
6. Emotional and Behavioural Shifts in Clients
Clients appear more anxious and emotionally attached to pets, often anthropomorphising them as children and certainly parts of the family. While this increases investment in care, it also fuels unrealistic expectations, emotional volatility, and stress-based decision-making.
7. Professional Strain and Changing Culture
Veterinary professionals describe increasing administrative, emotional, and reputational pressure. Public perception of the profession has worsened post-COVID, and with the recent CMA investigations, with vets seen by some as “money-driven.” This contributes to low morale, compassion fatigue, and mental health challenges across the sector.
Is this seen elsewhere?
Similar findings have been well-documented in human medicine, where unmet expectations have been linked to patient dissatisfaction, reduced compliance, malpractice claims, and lower clinician satisfaction.
Understanding how this dissonance between veterinary expectations and client expectations and how it may occur in veterinary practice is essential, as unmet client expectations can negatively influence communication, trust, and long-term relationships between veterinary teams and pet owners. Addressing this gap through improved communication, transparency, and client education is therefore critical to supporting both effective clinical outcomes and the overall success and sustainability of modern veterinary practice.
Previous studies suggest that clients hold a range of expectations regarding their interactions with veterinary teams and the care their animals receive. Pet owners generally expect their veterinarian (and veterinary team) to be kind, compassionate, and considerate, to treat both their animals and themselves as individuals, and to listen attentively to their concerns and worries. In addition, clients value clear communication and education about their pet’s health, diagnosis, and treatment options, as well as transparent discussions about costs and financial considerations. These expectations highlight the importance of empathy, communication, and partnership in fostering trust and satisfaction within the veterinary–client relationship, while ensuring that high-quality clinical care remains at the centre of practice. Sounds doable? So what are the barriers and when (and how often) are we not achieving this for our clients?
In one paper ‘Pet owners’ and veterinarians’ perceptions of information exchange and clinical decision-making in companion animal practice’ three barriers for veterinarians affecting information exchange and decision-making were identified:
1) time constraints;
2) involvement of multiple clients; and
3) language barriers.
Are there interventions we can do to mitigate this? Regarding time constraints, one paper stated a barrier as ‘having standardised appointment lengths was considered challenging because of variable client needs.’ Does longer or flexible consultations ‘ruin’ the practice's productivity, or will it foster trust, compliance and a bonded client, which ultimately could result in better compliance and repeated custom? Could you consider a more robust protocol for language barriers; such as the use of technology and translation apps as well as following up with written guidance which can often be more readily translated?
Are we evolving and adapting to our clients needs?
The Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship
The Importance of the Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) establishes trust, effective communication, and mutual understanding between veterinary teams and pet owners. This ultimately can facilitate the foundation of veterinary care, ensuring proper diagnosis, treatment, and support for animal patients; thus better treatment outcomes.
Robyn: “It is my opinion that if we have a relationship with the people, great veterinary care will follow.”
Communication
In a paper ‘A focus group study of veterinarians’ and pet owners’ perceptions of veterinarian-client communication in companion animal practice’, five major themes related to veterinarian–client communication were identified in the analysis.
The first theme, educating clients, encompassed activities such as explaining key information clearly, providing essential details proactively, and sharing information in multiple formats to enhance understanding.
The second theme, providing choices, referred to offering owners a range of treatment or management options, respecting their decisions, and fostering a sense of partnership in the decision-making process.
The third theme, two-way communication, involved using language that clients could easily understand, actively listening to their concerns, and asking appropriate questions to gather relevant information.
The fourth theme related to communication breakdowns that negatively affected the client’s experience, such as owners feeling misinformed, unaware of all available options, or unheard during consultations. This theme clearly plays into the success of point 1-3.
And finally, the fifth theme described challenges faced by veterinarians when communicating with clients, including financial constraints, client misinformation, involvement of multiple decision-makers, and time limitations during appointments.
Dr Google*: Empowering or Misguiding?
*Other search engine available
As said in an abstract:
‘The doctor as the second opinion and the internet as the first, people who use the Internet for health information often obtain their first opinion that way, and then, if they go to a doctor, the doctor's advice is relegated to the second opinion. Using the Internet, or Dr. Google, as a first opinion, can be problematic due to misinformation, misinterpretation of valid information, and the fears that can arise due to lack of medical knowledge, inexperience, and limited perspectives.’
The internet has many many benefits, it allows the dissemination of good quality resources, which veterinary teams can use to their advantage as part of information sharing in multiple formats, and signpost to resources when they have limited time to cover all bases during the time-limitations of a consultation.
However, online pet health information can range from peer-reviewed or professionally curated veterinary resources to personal blogs, opinions, or anecdotal posts from other pet owners, and those with a more sinister agenda: the quality and reliability of information can vary greatly (as many veterinary professionals can attest to). As one veterinarian participant in a study expressed, “Oh Google, it’s ruining our lives”.
Many owners may not have the necessary medical knowledge, skepticism or context to critically evaluate medical information or relate it appropriately to their animal’s specific circumstances (nor should we expect them to be able to). As a result, online material can sometimes misinform or distress owners, increasing the likelihood of misdiagnosis, inappropriate home treatment, or delayed veterinary care. It may also increase the possibility of previous biases or medical scaremongering, resulting in reluctance to comply with suggested treatment plans.
Secondly, when a client’s online findings conflict with the vet’s diagnosis or recommended treatment, this can influence the owner’s satisfaction, trust, and compliance. Disagreements or tension may arise, potentially leading to reduced client confidence, requests for second opinions, changes in practice, or the pursuit of unverified online treatment advice or medications.
Other industries accept that their ‘client’ is already a long way through the decision making process before presenting to them. The internet is not going anywhere, so we need to start learning how we communicate and work to mitigate the negative side such as the tension, disagreement and conflict that may arise from clients arriving with preconceived ideas. We should also ensure we celebrate the fact that the client is engaged in their pets health and proactive, and try to signpost to resources that we trust.
Inoculation Theory: psychological inoculation
Not only should we use technology to our advantage with sending trusted resources after a consultation, we should also get actively involved in pre-consultation decision making; a practice management system may be able to be set up to send automated information to clients upon booking for certain ailments - thus giving them something to read before they even reach you, and possibly manoeuvring them away from the misinformation.
Even if they do go on to read misinformation in the future they may be slightly more well equipped to refute it. Research has shown that the use of a ‘psychological inoculation’ can help make people less vulnerable to misinformation.
One chapter
‘Countering misinformation through psychological inoculation’ describes this wonderfully by saying ‘prebunking misinformation via a weakened dose, or equipping people with the skills they need—in advance—to refute future falsehoods.’
Are you actually listening?
While we often start the conversation off with ‘so, tell me what’s been going on with fluffy’ and we listen to the history given, teasing out the key bits of information from the bits of irrelevant history, when we engage with our pet owners are we involving them in decision making, are we listening to their concerns, are we even validating their concerns and ensuring that we are not passing judgement or being dismissive? This may be hard, but may be something to reflect on, or event audit. If you think you're doing amazingly, client feedback may show areas for improvement.
One study said: ‘Pet owners in four focus groups emphasized that an important aspect of partnership involves the veterinarian respecting an owner’s knowledge and understanding of their own pets’.
This demonstrates how important it is to feel listened to. Even more interestingly the study went on to say "Pet owners in four focus groups discussed at length the importance of veterinarians demonstrating that they were listening, by acknowledging clients’ thoughts and opinions, which included both listening to what clients say verbally and by evaluating body language to assess clients’ emotional state.’
Even more importantly, the internet has, as aforementioned, led to clients arriving at a consultation forearmed with a wealth of information - the good, the bad and the ugly.
Robyn: “When clients raise their concerns, whether it is medicine scaremongering that makes them fearful of X drug, or a ‘miracle’ remedy that we know is laughable but has filled them with hope; do not dismiss them. Engage; fully and wholeheartedly.”
Express how you are aware of these claims, and you are impressed that they have taken such consideration to research for their pet; provide support and guidance to the evidence (in a format that they can understand - jargon free); to personal anecdotes (which are often much stronger than evidence); and to your experience. If you are able, find a ‘middle ground’ or compromise, to show that you are validating their worries, but steer them towards evidence based modalities while still showing you have listened.
A real world example of this is osteoarthritis (OA) management (my favourite!). You have a 13 year old, canine patient, with OA. You want to start them on a NSAID; yet the client has expressed a wish for a more ‘natural’ route, citing many of the ‘miracle’ supplements that are marketed with no evidence. Instead of dismissing them, whereby they may (read: probably will) decide to engage regardless, and even fall foul of one of the many internet forums that drum up a huge amount of anti-medication fear and anti-veterinary rhetoric, point them in the direction of evidence based supplements such as omega-three fatty acids, discuss how research has shown that using this ‘natural’ product alongside NSAIDs may have a synergistic effect, thus they should be used concurrently. Furthermore, support them in getting involved in their pets care such as with physiotherapy techniques, home adaptations, hydrotherapy and other bonding experiences whereby the owner feels involved in the treatment plan. This way you have an owner now engaged in the treatment plan (NSAIDs), they have a natural product (Omega Threes) and you have proactively engaged them in their pets health and wellness so they feel valued (physiotherapy etc.).
Communicate at an appropriate level
As aforementioned in ‘Dr Google’, many owners may not have the necessary medical knowledge or context to critically evaluate medical information or relate it appropriately to their animal’s specific circumstances.
This is important to remember, as one study showed that participants in all pet owner focus groups agreed that they wanted their vet to explain things in a way that they understood. One pet owner said: “I don’t have a medical degree and I have no intentions of getting one, just because I own an animal, so explain it to me in terms that I can understand”. Some pet owners indicated that when their vet used medical jargon they “have to go home and Google what they’re saying”. This could inadvertently mean that they end up looking through or falling foul of resources that are not from a credible source.
Incidentally, it has been reported that clients DO want out help here. Having a list of trusted resources that you can email (or WhatsApp) over to them is another way to support a client, build a relationship and ensure they are accessing credible information, as noted in one paper: ‘It would be nice if they had a resource tool you know, like a little website that you could go to, instead of Googling it and getting 15 different answers.’
Communicate Based On The Context: Put Yourself In Their Shoes
Furthermore, cognitive overload is a real issue! Research has shown that almost half of what is said in human medical consultations is forgotten by the patient. However, despite wanting to give the client a good and thorough service, ‘verbal diarrhoea’ is not ideal.
One study discussed participating pet owners discussing their difficulty comprehending new information when it was only conveyed verbally. Pet owners also mentioned that they found using a visual aid alongside a verbal explanation was an effective method for their veterinarian to share information with them. This is particularly noteworthy as we recognise that not everyone communicates in the same way as us, and especially important in our neurodivergent population, who may require tailored information sharing.
Furthermore, we probably don't recognise enough the stress and emotion that comes even with ‘routine’ diagnosis for us. Using OA as an example again (because it is my favourite topic), a veterinary surgeon may diagnose OA multiple times a day, or at least weekly, we become desensitised to the impact. To an owner they now have a dog who has a chronic, degenerative and progressive illness. It can bring with it memories of previous animals deteriorating and a sense of mortality. For them, this is not an everyday occurrence. This distress and emotion toil highlights an even more pressing need to communicate and follow up with further support, on paper stated
This was especially important during times of emotional distress for a client, for example, when receiving information about a new diagnosis or when clients witnessed their pets in distress, as some participants felt that these scenarios made it difficult to absorb information.
How do we bring up money without being called ‘money grabbers’
It goes without saying that transparency is a must, and that we should give realistic estimates for everyone. Having conversations about money can be challenging but it doesn't need to be seen as ‘money grabbing’.
In one paper participating pet owners often described that when vets provided options, it reduced the clients’ concerns about vet’ financial motivations behind their recommendations. As one client explained “So they give you all these different options and it’s not just like they’re trying to make a sale or pushing one drug over another. So I like that”. The same study found that many participating pet owners associated “feeling pressured” or a lack of involvement in the decision-making process with the belief that vet’ intentions were solely based on money.
We must also take the pressure off ourselves to strive constantly for ‘gold standard’: contextual care, and assessing the clients and animals individual needs could bring great career satisfaction as long as we don’t view anything other than ‘gold standard’ as a failure. Sometimes the best thing for that individual isn't always what aligns with the ‘gold standard’. This inward pressure on ourselves is expressed in a study whereby the vets describe the desire to practice gold standard medicine which can be influenced by cost, because costs can be “challenging to clients which is then challenging to [veterinarians] because [they] can’t practice the way that [they] want to in a lot of situations”.
So, money may be an awkward subject, but there are ways to ensure that we make the conversation a discussion, rather than a taboo subject, and come to an agreement together for something that feels comfortable to both owner and veterinary teams. We could probably do better here, a study that found that overall, vets tend to communicate in a directive style (minimal eliciting of client opinion, dominating the consultation agenda, prioritising instrumental support). It was suggested that evidence-based medical communication methodologies into clinical training and I can’t help but think they are right (apart from the small issue of when what can be removed from the university curriculum to fit it in!). We spend our CPD on clinical matters (non judgement, I do too), is it time we start looking outside the profession to learn different communication skills?
‘Clients are more likely to be engaged in decision-making when their insight is actively solicited…The ability to communicate healthcare options is as vital as the provision of healthcare, if not more so’
Unfortunately, it isn't always that easy, but there are changes to how we approach these conversations that could change the outcome of how it is perceived.
Our Recommendations:
Get Involved in Pre-Consultation Decision Making (psychological inoculation)
Send Clients Home Trusted Literature (hand outs, texts, whatsapp, email)
Use Technology to Aid in Memory, Communication, Understanding and Compliance
Use WhatsApp, Hand Outs, Voice Notes, Emails to Communicate
Use trusted Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to summarise clinical notes or audio transcripts from consultations to send reports to clients after consultation or interaction to summarise what has been said and reaffirm the plan. NB See document by Dr Adele Williams-Xavier (Ai-WX.com) on Evaluating & Choosing Ethical AI Tools.
This helps when there are multiple decision makers involved in care, any forgotten information by the clients during a consultation (40–80% of medical information provided by healthcare practitioners is forgotten immediately), improving client experience and seeks to mitigate or ‘catch’ any verbal miscommunications that the client has misunderstood so they can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Remember, a VDS study found that in 80% of cases, communication had some sort of contributory role to play in the complaint.
Engage in Communication Training as part of CPD
Are we evolving as quickly as our clients?
So, how do we know if we are evolving as quickly as our clients, and if we are meeting their needs?
How do we check that we are meeting our clients expectations, if we are communicating well, if we are involving them, listening and engaging?
Many people may sit comfortably thinking they are a top notch communicator, but have we ever done an audit or surveyed OUR clients (because this will change from practice to practice)? It may be uncomfortable reading, but as one article put it ‘where proactive approaches are undertaken to create a high value, high-bonding experience for the clients, practices are thriving. Given that so few veterinarians have actually surveyed their clients, employed focus groups and thoroughly explored what their clients truly want, practice owners and managers are left to draw conclusions from their daily interactions in their exam rooms and at their reception desks.’
We may be a profession that joined for the love of animals, but now is the time to start to learn about the humans behind those animals. If we serve them, then veterinary care that we can be proud of can follow.
References and Further Reading.
A focus group study of veterinarians’ and pet owners’ perceptions of veterinarian-client communication in companion animal practice
Comments